Well this summer has had its ups and downs so far. In June business really started to pick up, and I did really well on sales. However in July its died down and I’ll be lucky if I get 2 new projects for July. That is kind of bumming me a little, but I’ll live.

I started working with the youth group at church, which is really great. I used to work with the youth group at Lakeview Covenant, and I really missed working with the youth while I was large group coordinator for IVCF. Now I’m back working with the youth and I’m enjoying it. I only wish our youth group were larger. It pains me to see that none of the high schoolers that are part of the church congregation want to come to youth group. Hopefully I can help things take a turn for the better.

Since there has been a downturn in projects recently, I’ve taken up a new personal project. Journal Planet. Journal planet is a site that provides free blog hosting. I’m hoping that this site will grow as fast as GetAForum did. I don’t have any plans to sell Journal Planet like I did with GetAForum, I’d like to see Journal Planet grow to be like LiveJournal, MySpace, or Xanga.

Speaking of projects, I’m excited because the ARCO project I’m working on for a local coffee company is coming to its culmination. I finally was able to get the domain registration into ARCO’s control from the company that managed it previously. Now I can update the name servers and set ARCO’s site live! Then it will be promote-promote-promote to build online sales. That will generate 1) a great revenue stream for ARCO, and 2) a great revenue stream for me.

Well, I really should post more often, and as I get into a more regular schedule at the office, I probably will.

Well, this weekend is the 4th of July, and keeping in accordance with tradition, my family is going up to the family cabin near Iron Mountain Michigan. We’ve been going there for the 4th of July for as long as I can remember. It’s my Uncle David’s cabin, it used to be my grandparents, but my Uncle bought it when my Grandpa died. My Mom’s side of the family gets together for a family reunion of sorts every 4th of July. I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend at the cabin, and getting to spend some time playing with the boat on the lake.

Leading up to this weekend, however, I’m quite busy. I’m in the process of launching 2 online stores, along with fininshing a website for another client, and continuing to work on another site for another client. The online stores I’m launching are Gnu Blu, a clothing brand I’m developing, and ARCO Coffee, a local coffee company that wants to sell their coffee online. Both stores are coming along and nearing completing, and I’m shooting for a Friday July 1st launch.

It’s my goal that these 2 stores take off and start generating some good monthly income. If they do well, it will add to my list of accomplishments in web development, but more importantly will help me build a good revenue base upon which my business can grow.

So if I look a little tired this week, or you don’t hear from me for a while, have no fear, I’m just up to my elbows with work so that I can afford to play a little this weekend.

Well, as most of you know, I currently own and operate my own business doing website development and hosting. This past month, I have really learned the importance of managing my business vs. working for my business. Up until these last few months, I’ve always done everything in my business. Finally its grown to a point where I’ve becomed swamped, almost overwhelmed with the amount of work coming in that I’ve had to hire. Thankfully, I’ve found some talented people who I feel have similar vision to myself, and am in the process of training them.

When someone starts their own business, it becomes their baby. When it succeeds, it becomes their pride and joy, and it is often hard to let go of parts. Similar to raising a child (which I hope to experience some day), you need to let go of things to let it grow. I’m confident that once my employees are trained, business will grow more than ever. I’ll be turning over responsibilities and trust to my employees, that they will do better jobs than I at their tasks.

I’m very thankful for my Human Resource class that I took back in May, I learned a great deal of information about managing employees, as well as hiring practices, and the legal ramifications of being an employer. Someone once told me that their biggest event with their own business, was moving from a 1-2 man operation to having 3-5 employees, and business just took off. I’m praying and hoping that I will have a similar experience.

Well, this has been a fairly good summer so far. Besides the fact that it has yet to get warmer than 70 degrees and go for more than 3 days without raining. I finished my Human Resources class that I took in May, and got an A-. I liked taking it as a May class for 3 weeks rather than a regular term class, I learned it better with the accelerated pace.

With my business, it seems like I constantly have 2-3 projects on my plate. I’m currently hiring, and recently met a lady who is going to start working for me, and helping me with web development. I’m excited, as this means that I can focus my time on things that need to get done, besides spending all my time actually making the websites themselves. Now I just need to hire someone to do system administration to help with the long list of projects I have going on with my servers.

Right now, I’m setting a goal for myself. I want my business to acheive $100,000 in the next year. And to start off this goal, I have a short term goal of getting $3000 in sales by the end of June. So I really need to get my butt in gear and start marketing. Thankfully my good friend Mike Frankosky recently finished my new logo for Utaria, and I LOVE IT! I’ve passed the logo on to my good friend Bryce Howitson who is going to do his magic and create a fantastic new web-layout using my new logo for me.

It’s funny how I develop websites for other businesses, and I feel that I do a pretty darn good job at it. Yet I don’t have time to develop my own website! I guess it is a cost-benefit thing, where my time is better spent making sites for clients to bring in money to pay the bills. This is exactly why I need to hire.

This is all for now. I really need to try to blog more, I find that blogging helps me organize my thoughts so I am aware of where I am currently, and I think its cool to read the comments of those who I’ve never met commenting on my life. So, until another day, cheers!

Right now, I’m taking a May class, Human Resource Management. It is 8am to 11am, Monday thru Friday for 3 weeks. It’s a pretty intense class, but I’m doing well (I got an A on the last exam). I really like the course because we are covering the different aspects of Human Resource Management, things like legal regulation on hiring practices, job descriptions, recruitment etc. Basically, a lot of things to do with employment. This is good because right now, I’m looking to hire a new employee or two.

Work has picked up a little for my business. I have several projects on the table that I am working on, and am at the point where for me to grow anymore, I need to hire. I’m excited, yet at the same time, terrified. My big fear is that I’ll hire someone, and have to pay them, but they won’t be a benefit to my business.

Being a small business, I need to examine the cost/benefit for each hire. Ideally, I want to find someone with a similar skillset to myself, who understands some business, and who is willing to help grow the business and make it succeed. Basically, any employee I hire needs to help make the business more profitable, otherwise the employee becomes a liability. So I’ve been putting together a fairly detailed job description, as well as job requirements. But the more I look and focus on that, the harder it is going to be to find someone to fit that job.

So as I pursue this new opportunity/need for my business, I’m really prayerfully considering God’ plan in all of this, where He wants me to be, as well as where He wants my business to progress.

Well, I took my last final last night. And it feels good to be done with class for the semester. Too bad I’m taking a May class, and start class again on Monday!

Work is picking up, I’m getting a few more web design projects lined up. I need to get on the ball more and finish the ones in progress so I can get paid for them. I’m really excited about getting ARCO’s site up and running, I just need to get in touch with them and get the finalized contract signed.

Gerdus did a good job on the latest version of MXR, I like the new admin interface, as it is more intuitive. So it will be easier for me to use and teach others how to use it. For those who are unaware, MXR is the content management system that I use for most of my web development projects. It was coded by Gerdus van Zyl, a hosting customer of mine. It works great, and is a good CMS for designers/developers as it is quite customizable. I hope to be giving Gerdus a lot of work this summer as more projects come in.

I’m looking forward to the next few months. I’m going to focus on re-vamping my YouResell.com site, and doing a big push for resellers. My plans include updated reseller plans, value-added services, and a detailed internet marketing campaign. More details to come!

Well, I havent posted in a while. I have been extremely busy with meeting with potential clients, to working on a new development that has come to me. But I’ve taken a break from it all, and am spending the weekend at my parents house since tomorrow is Mothers Day.

I love my family, they’re all really cool, and I enjoy spending time with them. I especially like the fact that my parents are still married after 23 years. And I never know what I’m going to find when I come home to visit.

I got home yesterday afternoon, and there was a car in the driveway that I didn’t recognize. Its a 2005 silver Saab 93T. I go inside and ask who’s car that is, and my mom says, “It’s mine”. I asked what happened to her old car (a green 2000 Saab 93t that she bought last fall). Well, she traded it in for the new one because the payments were the same and insurance was only $40 more per year. I just had to shake my head… And my friends wonder where I get my spending habits from!

My mom recently got back from a trip to Brazil where she was visiting my Aunt & Uncle (who are missionaries in Brazil). So she had been gone for the last 2 weeks, so I didn’t see her when I was home last. I enjoy spending time with my mom, I like that I can bounce ideas off of her and talk about business stuff, especially since she has had her own businesses too. She recenly sold her Home Healthcare agency that had over 40 employees, and is now starting a promotional product business with my Dad.

Well, time to go help put the Dock, Boat lift, and Boat into the lake.

So, I received a phone call from Charlie at JAARS, an organization that works with the Wycliffe Bible translators. They want me to come and see how I could fit into their ministry, and possibly go abroad, setting up technological infrastructure for missionaries in other countries. I think that this is really cool. One of the things that I’ve wanted to do is grow my business to a point where I can support myself, and then go abroad and be a self employed missionary. If this is the route that God wants me to take, then this is definately a door that is being opened.

So I’m going to call them back later this week, and figure out a time early this summer when I don’t have class to go out to North Carolina for a week and get a feel for what they are doing, and how my skills can be put to use serving with them. If that is a route God wants me to take, I have faith that He will provide for me. I would need to sell my house (I’m planning on this anyways), grow my busines to a point where I can support myself at least minimally, and have a good establishment here in Duluth with an employee or two to make sure the day to day operations keep running smoothly. Then I can do everything I need to do remotely.

I’m excited about this. Ever since last fall, I’ve been getting the itch to travel, and this fits in with what I have been thinking about where I want to take my business.

So yesterday afternoon was really nice. It was 60 degrees and sunny! So I decided to go for a run, to get out of the house, and get some excersize. I ran probably 2, maybe 2.5 miles max (out and back from my house). The thing I learned from that was that I am extremely out of shape.

I used to run cross country back in high school (8-12th grade) as well as Track (8th-11th grade). I loved running, especially distance running. There isn’t a better way to get out, clear your mind, and enjoy nature than to go for a run down a lonesome county park trail.

When I first came to college here in Duluth, I set a goal of running Grandma’s Marathon before I graduate. Well, I havent really ran at all since high school, and I’ll be graduating next spring, so it looks like I need to start training if I want to meet my goal. I’m going to try to get out and run 3 times a week (MWF) as I have time. Actually, I’m going to schedule time into my schedule for running, that way I’ll be more likely to do it.

I think its about time that I add a ‘Goals’ Page so I can keep track of my goals, and others can prod me to stick to them

As I’ve been in this recent time of personal financial stress, it really hit me today the importance and meaning of being frugal. As I work to get myself out of debt, as well as get my business ahead, I’ve been learning firsthand how important it is to cut costs.

The realization became more clear to me as I was making lunch today. My lunch consisted of SPAM sandwiches. I opened a can of SPAM, fried up several slices, melted some cheese, and put it on a couple slices of toasted bread. It really wasn’t a bad meal, it actually tasted pretty good. And in all, it really only cost me, maybe $1.50 at the most to make the 2 sandwiches, and have a glass of coke (from a 2 liter). Now most people don’t consider SPAM a delicacy, and the only reason why I bought it when I was shopping last was because it was $0.89 for a small can, and I remembered eating it as a kid.

I’m still working, and trying to get a strict budget laid out for myself personally. I’m really kicking myself because just yesterday, I ate lunch on campus, and paid $5.50 for a meal that didn’t completely fill me. I could have had 3 meals here at home for the same price. Expand that over the course of a month, and that is a couple hundred dollars a month I can save.

So now, I’m setting myself a goal to not eat out until June 1. I’m going to see how well this goes, if I can break my habit of eating out, or eating fast food (which is less healthy as well). There are only certain times that I’ll allow myself to eat out, and that is if it is for business. For example, if I am meeting with a client or potential client over coffee.

It’s time that I start pinching my pennies, and counting my quarters so I don’t end up nickel & dime’ing my way into the poorhouse.